"Yet depression - a treatable condition - is one of the major factors driving the suicide rate."

Yes, it can be treated, but the effectiveness of the treatment varies, and those who suffer depression can still find themselves going through cycles of misery. If a person in that position decides that their down times are not compensated for by their up times, that's a value jugement for them alone to make. It's patronising for other people to suggest that the value judgement is flawed, and that such a person should be denied knowledge of how to terminate their life.

In practice, information on how to do it is readily obtainable over the Internet, and will remain so regardless of anything that the Austrian government does.

Sylvia Else.

Dear Brian (hard not to call you Senator)

Thank you for your article. I am a psychiatric/mental health nurse of some 27 years.

I know despair. I know profound clinical depression. I know what it is like to try and care for people who are profoundly clinically depressed.

I know the difference between the everday "blues" and suicidal ideation. I know how to assess people who have mental health problems. Ugh? Does Sylvia Else have my clinical experience?

I know that there is a difference. I know that I have a Duty of Care. I know that many young and vulnerable people are alive today because of the actions of mental health professionals - such as me. I also know that despite professional care, some people have killed themselves as a result of extreme clinical depresion.

I also know that not all so-called suicidal deaths are as the media and others present. I have nursed many people who have responded to COMMAND HALLUCINATIONS. Intent death in response to "voices" - especially the illness of Schizophrenia and people who have a concommitant drug induced psychosis.

My experience with young people who are intent on killing themselves is profound.

I am not taking away their choice. I am caring. I am certainly NOT PATRONISING (as Else suggests).

And to give further insight on my part. A family member died by suicide. She left a 5 months old and an 18 months old. We are still crying - since 1993.

What a bunch of whimps we are.If you really want to go, the exits are as finite as your own imagination.You don't need drugs to do it.Just a bit of courage to face your finality with the totality of your life's experiences.Yes is was worth it,and the pain of existence beyond this point is not!

Just don't get to the point of being trapped in a nursing home when all your options are diminished by your own physical and mental incompetence.I'm determined to plan my exit and snub my nose at all the anal retentive power hungry bureaucrats.

I think klw's response just emphasises my point. These people with depression are people over there - people we talk about - people we look after - people who are not able to make their own decisions.

But that's not how it is. They are not a separate group from us. They are part of us.

Did it occur to nobody that I'm not speaking as a purported expert, nor as a carer of people who suffer depression, nor as a sort of reverse bleeding heart, but directly from my own experience of suffering periods of severe clinical depression?

I resent any suggestion that people in my position are not competent to make their own decisions about their best course of action. As I said - it's patronising.

Sylvia Else.

"Compassion is not giving someone information on how to commit suicide. Compassion is looking to the reasons they want to take such desperate action. Compassion is addressing people’s pain, depression, loneliness or fear. It is helping them with their mental health, physical illness or substance abuse."

What is disturbing is that this even needs to be said. There was a time when this definition of compassion was obvious. People suffering mental or physical illness deserve better than a suicide kit, they deserve our time, our care, our resources and yes even our money. It may be difficult, time consuming and costly to address the complex problems people face but each and every human being is worth it, no one is a lost cause, we are all valuable.

Would those who advocate suicide as a valid solution to life's problems accept it for members of their own family? Will we send this message to our own children, that suicide is an option we will help them with?

I, like many people have suffered depression and I cringe at the thought of what might have been if I had received such advice.

Thank you Brian for your positive message.

Get a life Sylvia! You seem so angry with the world - and anyone who presents a different view to yourself - refer back to your article about the value of my great mates - men!

For god's sake - I suffer from severe panic attacks and concommitant episodic depression as a result of gang rape. Even so, I assist people who want to help themselves and others. I am not spending my life sending out negative messages.